


The Reason He Bothered

by nychus



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, TA!Ignis, student!Noctis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 02:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14227545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nychus/pseuds/nychus
Summary: Ignis reminisces the summer course he taught that felt like it lasted years and not just weeks. He couldn't get the students engaged and it was frustrating beyond belief. There was one bright spot, though, Noctis. Noctis was the only reason he bothered with much for that class at the end.





	The Reason He Bothered

The summer session was finally over and Ignis couldn’t have been more thrilled. Or, he would be once he got the energy to feel anything but contempt for his students.

No one had wanted to teach the second session of political science that summer and as Ignis could always use the extra money, he volunteered. It wasn’t like he was going to be doing anything but work on his dissertation anyway. Might as well have something to do that breaks the monotony that happens as he got further and further into his paper.

How he wished he hadn’t.

Someone asked him once how his students were, and the only positive thing he could think to say was “I like their personalities.”

This was true. The students themselves, all five of them, were genuinely pleasant people who had fun conversations before and after class and during any breaks. But as students, four of them were just awful. They clearly didn’t want to be there, either they were just trying to get a gen ed out of the way or they were re-taking it after dropping or flunking their first go around.

Ignis would stand in front of the class and lecture only to see three of the students staring at their phones and the fourth was taking notes via the computer, but who knows what they were really doing. More than once Ignis had to say “You might want to write this down, it will be on the test” if only to get the phones down long enough to copy what he’d written on the board and then back to the phones.

He tried banning phones but worked for all of one class period.

He did everything he could to help them have the right study materials, updating the study guide after each lesson. He gave weekly quizzes so that they would be adding the information slowly and not trying to cram everything in at the last minute for a test.

The quizzes were terrible and the tests even worse. How could they miss questions on the test that were exactly the same, word for word, on the quizzes?

One student missed several days due to a series of unfortunate events and answered a test question with “I missed this day, hope I won’t again!” Ignis stared at that answer for a long time, wondering why he bothered with study guides if students weren’t going to use them.

He gave one student a chance to take a test several days after the actual date. Said student admitted they weren’t ready so Ignis gave a few extra days. Taking time out of his research schedule to meet with this student only to have the test handed back with at least a third of the answers left blank. Why does he bother?

He asked what he could do help them with the tests. One student (the one who got to take the test late) simply said don’t have tests. Another had the gall to say they had other classes and so everything just got crammed in the end. In his head, Ignis was thinking “I give you no homework and try to keep you on track with gradually adding to the study guide and weekly quizzes and you’re too busy for that?” What he did was say he’d make the final test multiple choice only. That helped the scores a little, but even then, how could these students do so poorly?

Of course, Ignis would have loved to have failed them all. All that means is that he would have loved to keep all the grades flat without any curve. But his adviser told him to just keep everything curved so they all pass and get out of their hairs.

He understood the politics of the move, but he felt bad for the one student who was actually there to learn something. One Noctis Lucis Caelum, Crown Prince of the country Ignis had come to for university. Noctis Lucis Caelum, the reason he bothered with study guides and quizzes and other things that would compliment the in class lessons.

The prince was a quiet sort, though he would join in the conversations occasionally. He always took notes and would ask questions. More than once he would come to Ignis’s office to be sure he understood some concept or another. He aced the quizzes and would have broken the curve if Ignis would have stopped with getting the highest score to 100%. As it was, Noctis’s final grade was well above 100% and Ignis was happy to click the A+ grade next to his name.

Final grades submitted, Ignis leaned back in his chair. He would miss Noctis. He enjoyed what time they spent together and the conversations they would have. Ignis would explain why something was and Noctis would ask why it had to be that way and not this other, better way? Ignis felt he could probably hold debates like that for hours with him.

There was a part of him that wanted to take Noctis out as a thank you for being such a good student and keeping his faith in humanity. But he figured that would be weird as it might be construed as a date. Not that Ignis would mind that, but there was the whole taboo thing of teachers dating students, even if Ignis was only a year or so older than Noctis and he was just a teaching assistant and not a professor. There was also the little issue of Noctis being the prince. There were probably rules about dating that Ignis couldn’t even fathom.

Still, it was a nice thought, and one Ignis figured he’d indulge himself in occasionally now that the prince was no longer his student.

A knock on his office door brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up and was surprised to see Noctis standing there.

“Noctis, to what do I owe pleasure?” Ignis asked.

Noctis leaned against the door frame and was rubbing his arm in a nervous sort of way. It was a curious thing to watch and Ignis couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking.

“I just…I wanted to say thanks for a good class. You were a great teacher and I’m sorry the others treated the class so poorly.”

Ignis could feel the blush on his face as he smiled. “Thank you, Noctis. It helps to hear that.”

“Just know it wasn’t you, it was them,” Noctis said. He looked like he was going to say something else but thought better of it as he pushed off from the door. “I just wanted to let you know.”

The prince was quick to leave the office before Ignis could say anything else. Instead, Ignis found himself calling for Noctis to come back. When the that pale face and bright blue eyes poked around again, Ignis wanted to say thank you again. What he actually said was, “Would you allow me to treat you to something at the coffee shop? As thanks for being the reason I kept going to class?”

A few seconds passed before Noctis smiled. “I’d like that, but only if you’ll let me treat you later for being such a great teacher.”

Ignis couldn’t help but laugh, “Deal.”

The smile he was rewarded with was amazing and Ignis swore to himself he would do everything in his power to see that smile often. As he grabbed his things and joined Noctis in the hall, Ignis couldn’t help but wonder where he could find any rules about dating a prince.

**Author's Note:**

> UUUGGGHHH, I'm projecting. I'm frustrated with my students and I just needed to write something out. Of course, I don't have that fifth good student. I just have the four sucky ones (also, I'm the professor, so uh...no to any sort of relationship, which is also why Ignis is a TA, cuz I can groove with that) and a lot of their behavior is illustrated above. Not all in the story is them, but I've had enough students over the years that I've a barrel of things along those lines.
> 
> Thanks for reading if you did! I just really needed some catharsis...it was written quickly so I know it's not the best, but I feel better. A little.


End file.
